Pakistan should stay neutral on Saudi-Qatar rift: Pak analyst

In an interview with IRNA Lieutenant General (retired) Talat Masood said that Pakistan has friendly relations with both Qatar and Saudi Arabia so it should not get involved in this Arab countries’ fight.

He added that the reason Saudi Arabia has cut diplomatic ties with Qatar is because the Persian Gulf state wants to follow an independent policy which is not acceptable to Saudi Arabia.

“There has been rivalry between Qatar and Saudi Arabia for long time and they see eye to eye on many issue, like for the instance Qatar’s support for Egypt's Morsi, its independent oil policy and its relationship with Iran. so I think Saudi Arabia wants to force Qatar to follow policies of Riyadh in the Middle East,” he said.

Talat Masood went on to say that Qatar wants to be more independent and that is why we see many differences between the two countries.

Earlier Pakistan rejected some media reports regarding Islamabad’s position on cutting of diplomatic ties between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and said right now there is no need to comment on this issue.

Talking to IRNA, foreign ministry spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said: we do not confirm the media reports and any necessary statement regarding the recent development between Qatar and some Arab states will be released from the formal channels of the foreign ministry.

Local media quoting some sources in the foreign ministry reported that Pakistan will keep ties with Qatar as the country believes in unity of Muslim world.

Almost two weeks after Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have announced they were severing diplomatic ties with Qatar, as they accused the Persian Gulf state of supporting terrorism.

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